Songfacts®:

• Zada is an Ethiopian-born singer-songwriter who grew up exploring the mountains of her new hometown of Whistler, British Columbia. Her athleticism and love of nature often informs her songwriting, which was the case with "Atlantic Times," the first single from her debut album, Water In The Desert.
  
  "I remember watching the water lap over my surfboard and it made me think of the push and pull of relationships," she told American Songwriter in a 2023 interview. "I went into the session with that as my inspiration. I wanted to capture the essence of the feeling you get when you meet someone, catch a spark, but you go your separate ways, then wonder if it’s a lost connection, or if those seconds could be recreated one day."
• Zada cowrote the the tune with her producers Chin Injeti [Drake, Eminem] and Brian West [Maroon 5, Sia], who created the percussive beat using kitchen utensils. Zada told the Songfacts Podcast that she first met her collaborators back in 2020 through Rob Darch, the owner of the Vancouver-based Hipposonic Studios. "So, we all came together as a small group of people, and then we all slowly expanded and became what it is today, which is crazy for me to say," she said.
• Zada is an avid skier, surfer, and horseback rider, but her interest in learning a different sport inspired the idea for the music video: sailing. In the clip, the singer drifts along the water in a sailboat as folks from different eras reach out to their loved ones through various methods of communication, including a message in a bottle, a homing pigeon, a pay phone, and a cell phone.
  
  She met with directors Blake Jorgenson and Leo Hoorn at a coffee shop to brainstorm ideas for the promo, and their shared struggle with communication in their private relationships inspired the theme. Zada told American Songwriter: "We wanted to lighten up the narrative and feature tones of comedy, while juxtaposing it with these surreal dreamy backdrops. The message we wanted to send out at the end was to honor the power of real human connection - 'throw away the phone, the paper and pen, come talk!'"